TheForeman foreman-rake db:migrate task fails when upgrading between 1.3.x -> 1.4.x and from any version <=1.3 to at least 1.5.2. The fix is to edit the rake task /usr/share/foreman/db/migrate/20130924145800_remove_unused_role_fields.rb. Bug #4518 is open for this issue.

The initial failure/error.

# foreman-rake db:migrate
...
rake aborted!
An error has occurred, all later migrations canceled:

Mysql2::Error: Can't DROP 'inherited_from'; check that column/key exists: ALTER TABLE `user_roles` DROP `inherited_from`

Tasks: TOP => db:migrate
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

Comment out the offending #remove_column method call in the migration rake task.

# vim /usr/share/foreman/db/migrate/20130924145800_remove_unused_role_fields.rb
class RemoveUnusedRoleFields < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def up
    remove_column :users, :role_id
    #remove_column :user_roles, :inherited_from
  end

  def down
    add_column :users, :role_id, :integer
    add_column :user_roles, :inherited_from, :integer
  end
end

Try again...

# foreman-rake db:migrate
==  RemoveUnusedRoleFields: migrating =========================================
-- remove_column(:users, :role_id)
rake aborted!
An error has occurred, all later migrations canceled:

Mysql2::Error: Can't DROP 'role_id'; check that column/key exists: ALTER TABLE `users` DROP `role_id`

Tasks: TOP => db:migrate
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

Comment out the new offender.

# vim /usr/share/foreman/db/migrate/20130924145800_remove_unused_role_fields.rb
class RemoveUnusedRoleFields < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def up
    #remove_column :users, :role_id
    #remove_column :user_roles, :inherited_from
  end

  def down
    add_column :users, :role_id, :integer
    add_column :user_roles, :inherited_from, :integer
  end
end

Try yet again...

# foreman-rake db:migrate
==  RemoveUnusedRoleFields: migrating =========================================
==  RemoveUnusedRoleFields: migrated (0.0000s) ================================
...
Recreating cache
#

And the Migration should complete.